Thanks to Pen & Sword for the chance to read and review this book, and I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get around to doing it.
I found this book really interesting. There were so many different parts to it. I’ve never been to the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, though my parents have, and it’s somewhere that I do really want to go. I’ve devoured the guidebook they bought me back, and this book only made me more interested in it and crave a visit even more.
What I found really interesting was the central idea of the book that Henry VIII was responsible for the sinking of the ship the Mary Rose in 1545 because he was determined to have a hand in the redesign of his existing ships around 1536. He filled the Mary Rose with too many guns and her gun ports were too close to the waterline, so when she turned and caught an unexpected gust of wind she heeled over and sank.
The book doesn’t just look at who sank the Mary Rose, but the history of the ship from its beginnings at the start of Henry VIII’s reign right through to when she sank outside Portsmouth Harbour at the end of Henry VIII’s reign. There are also chapters on the salvage efforts, which I didn’t realise began within weeks of the sinking, as well as the lead up to the sinking, reconstructing the ship, and the ship’s legacy.
This is a great read for anyone with an interest in Tudor history or naval history. It’s a really interesting subject and one which deserves more to be written about it.
Chapters:
- Disaster
- Building the Mary Rose
- Into Action 1512-1514
- The Second French War 1522
- Modernisation
- The French King’s Vengeance
- Trapped in Portsmouth Harbour
- The English Set Sail
- The French Admiral Attacks
- Admiral Lisle’s Revenge
- Salvage
- Discovery and Raising
- Reconstructing the Mary Rose
- Final Moments: The Castles and Masts
- Final Moments: Soldiers on the Upper Gun Deck
- Final Moments: Main Gun Deck
- Final Moments: The Orlop Deck
- Final Moments: Bodies in the Hold
- Who Sank the Mary Rose?
- Legacy of the Mary Rose
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